Singabloodypore

A rather timely look back over the last year from The Void Deck. Timely for me that is, as I am doing research on the MrBrown and Bhavani 'event'. I have been running a few mapping programmes trying to make sure that I get all the first blogger responses to the event from July 2006. So I would like to thank the people of The Void Deck for highlighting what I think was a pivotal moment in the evolution of the Singapore Socio-political blogsphere. I have copied and pasted the entire article here for my own reference.

The map below is a representation of the 'conversation' that took place in July of 2006 within the blogosphere. It is produced to ensure that I am not missing any of the posts that occurred within the first few days of the 3rd July 2006. It includes the incoming and outgoing links to the network.

To view the svg file with incoming links only.

I have thought it relevant to also add the list of article http addresses that I used to generate the map above and also provide the data that I have been able to extract over the last few days. Some data is unavailable, either because nothing was mentioned of the event, or the data has been reproduced in full on another blog within the network. So the image below is of all the Singapore socio-political blogs that have been active from July 2006 to July 2007 and those that wrote about the event have a link to the first article they wrote on the subject.

As for what I intend to do with this 'mini' corpus. Well you will have to wait and see. If you have any issues with this post or something to add concerning the data please feel free to let me know in what ever style you like in the comment section.

Brown and Bhavani: One Year Later

In July last year, Mr Brown was censured for his Today article "S'poreans are fed, up with progress!". It has about one year since the Bhavani Commandments made its way around the Internet, upsetting bloggers and stirring up a hornet's nest of anti-PAP sentiments. About one year ago this time, the PAP was fresh from its win, basking in overconfidence that it remains in power and therefore perhaps purposefully set out for some punitive action for being slighted during the election. "Bak chor mee man" Mr Brown was an easily available target and his typical Today feature, nothing out of the ordinary in its tongue-in-cheek criticisms, was the obtuse pretext for a PAP strategy re-think in the Internet.

The Digital Age in the PM's National Day Rally, despite the guffaws around "mee siam mai hum" and the "mai hum mai hum mai hum" podcast, showed that the PAP was serious about doing something with the Internet. It was the first time ever that the ruling party openly placed the Internet community, particularly in a Rally speech, as important to "manage" as MP Denise Phua puts it a few months before the Rally.

The PAP wanted to curb its competition, set up their own Internet outlets and basically tried to sell their wares in cyberspace. The root idea is that the PAP wants to extend their domination in the mainstream print and broadcast media into the online one, an assessment which is circulated often if one is familiar with the discourse on the role of the Internet as an alternative media in Singapore.

The P65 MP blog is one of the more visible PAP attempts but with 12 P65 MP contributors coming out with only 13 entries from April to June 2007, that project is losing steam. In contrast, compare their project with NMP Siew Kum Hong's impressive Herculean one-person show with 26 entries in the same April to Jun 2007 window. This is anecdotal evidence that the PAP is probably less than fully committed and inspired in the area of Internet outreach. Foreign Minister George Yeo is still around in the Internet but while we try to be fair and understand that he is a busy person, his material unfortunately looks more of a plain diary rather than an engaging sustained socio-political blog. His presence could potentially have been a meaningful avenue for PAP engagement in Internet but that "propaganda" engine is not running at optimum speed. However, the Young PAP blog in comparison is still promising in capturing and maybe even holding some ground in the Internet. Besides the fledging open front consisting of a Minister, the 3G-style MPs and party members, quietly in the flanks, the PAP also has unknown number of anonymous supporters and skirmishers in the Internet to win over the Internet constituency.

However, this controversial counter-insurgency is shrouded in secrecy and its effectiveness is hard to measure. A profound assessment can be done after the next General Election when observers are in a better position to chart the ups and downs of PAP advances in the Internet between General Elections.

What are the repercussions if the PAP thinks it is not making enough progress in winning votes in the Internet? Since the Mr Brown fallout, the government has admirably shown restraint and avoided using the big stick on socio-political bloggers. Bloggers who transgress the rigid OB markers of race and religion are however vulnerable to government prosecution, a dictum oft repeated.

The PAP has so far not crossed the virtual line and embarked on a defamation lawsuit campaign against bloggers with no links to any opposition party. Would the PAP cross this line eventualy? Perhaps. Is this a storm cloud looming over socio-political bloggers? Surely. But is this threat of lightning repercussion an actual or perceived one? Currently, it is more perceived than real as the government under the PAP has yet to stomp any socio-political blogger into the ground solely based on that "non-partisan" blogger's postings of a political nature, Mr Brown excluded as officially he was singled out for his newspaper column rather than his blog posts.

This restraint might however disappear with time if the PAP continues to fear that the Internet ground is totally lost. If the PAP assesses that they cannot colonise the Internet, then they might think they have to resort to unpopular regulatory and punitive measures to assert their historical penchant to be 100% dominant in the media. Which leads to the next question. What is one signal that the PAP is losing hope in the Internet and therefore a possibility of a 1994 Catherine Lim-like pogrom in the Internet? The short answer is that when we sense the PAP's efforts regressing, see a deafening silence in the PAP corners of the Internet and if the P65, George Yeo and Young PAP blogs gets more horribly mundane and juvenile. The more the PAP in the Internet becomes reclusive and isolated from the socio-political blogging community, the more likely they would use the nuclear option. The next question is, if that happens, would it encourage more socio-political blogging instead and the PAP loses even more political support?